February 21, 2024: J Pod | Colvos Passage
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Location: Lisabeula Park, Vashon Island, WA
Weather: Rainy, 50 degrees Fahrenheit with 10mph winds from E
Tide: Flood
Pods: J Pod
Total Whale Count: 25
Behaviors: Traveling, socializing
Boat Count: 1 (private vessel)
J59 Sxwyeqólh, J37 Hy’Shqa, J31 Tsuchi, J56 Tofino
On the previous day, J Pod had been around Haro Strait, and overnight they made their way into the inland waters of Puget Sound. There were a few detections on some of the hydrophones, but for the most part, they snuck in unnoticed until the next morning when they were first spotted and confirmed in Seattle traveling southbound.
When possible, we like to try to get to Vashon Island in hopes of seeing them at Point Robinson, but we knew that we wouldn’t have time to make it given their current location and my travel time. Despite this fact, we decided to still head out to Vashon Island with the logic that either they would eventually flip northbound, giving us a possible opportunity at Point Robinson upon their return, or if they continued and traveled north through Colvos Passage (on the west side of Vashon Island) we would be in a position to see them, as where if we stayed on the mainland side this was not the case.
A little less than an hour's drive and we arrived at the ferry terminal right as it was loading and made it over to Vashon in a short time. At this point Js were at the very south end of Vashon, so we made the 25-minute drive down. By this point, the rain started picking, and by the time we arrived at the Tahlequah ferry parking lot to scan, J Pod had already rounded the corner heading north up Colvos Passage. It was time to relocate again.
There are limited viewing locations on the west side of Vashon, so the first public access point was Lisabuela Park, which was only a 15-minute drive from our current location. It was still raining fairly hard, so when we got to the park we waited in the car for a few minutes before my impatience got the best of us and we joined the other people at the beach to scan. Within just a few minutes, someone spotted them headed our way, and got our gear set up. As the whales were approaching, they were displaying quite a lot of surface activity including multiple breaches.
Earlier reports had indicated they were spread out or broken out into groups, but by the time they made it to us, they appeared to be traveling more in a group, mixing with multiple matrilines. The whales were between mid-channel to our side, and as they came closer we were able to get some excellent looks and even hear their exhales and the percussive sounds of their breaches and tail slaps over the rain (though the camera was not able to pick this sound up over the rain).
In classic form, the first group we were able to ID contained members of the J19s including J19 Shachi, J41 Eclipse, and J58 Crescent. We saw two breaches in this group and a little spy hop for J58 Crescent. There was a second group close off from them more midchannel which included J27 Blackberry. As the two groups approached closer we were able to identify additional members of the J11s including J31 Tsuchi, J56 Tofino, and J39 Mako. All of the J16s (J16 Slick, J26 Mike, J36 Alki, and J42 Echo) were close behind and on the Vashon side of the channel.
As the whales got more in line with us on shore, they began to group up and we were also able to identify other individuals including J22 Cookie, J38 Oreo, J57 Hy’Shqa, J59 Sxwyeqólh, J40 Suttles, and J44 Moby mixed in with the members of the J19s, J16s, and J11s. We observed within these groups J37 Hy’Shqa along with her calf near two-year-old calf J59 Sxwyeqólh traveling with J31 Tsuchi and her 5-year-old calf J56 Tofino. We are always so interested to see how the matrilines intermingle, and which calves are associating with who.
There were a few whales we didn’t see, including members of the J17s but we believe they were present and just not in the groups that were close to us. As all of our encounters with Southern Residents are shore-based, we are only able to ID the whales that are within our view and the ones we can capture on the camera. After several wonderful looks, J Pod left view and we were quite excited at the rainy encounter we had with Js. Instead of chasing them from location to location, we decided to make our way off island and back north in hopes of dodging Seattle traffic. J Pod ultimately continued north, passing Seattle before dark, and after dark, we were able to listen to them on the Sunset Bay hydrophone. They were quite vocal for a little over an hour. At some time during the night, they left Puget Sound.
J Pod is one of three pods within the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whale population. J Pod consists of 6 matrilines and 25 individual whales.
Learn more about J Pod and all the 25 members on our Meet the Southern Resident Page.